Gage Davis - Comprehensive Babbling

This is an extension to my recent blog about #Alive, it is probably worthwhile to give that a read before this one. Train to Busan was released in 2016 and received critical acclaim from reviewers and audiences for its take on the zombie genre. It currently has a 7.6 on IMDB and an extremely impressive 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film was written by Park Joo-suk and directed by Yeon-Sang-ho.  Train to Busan is much more similar to World War Z than #Alive , it follows a father, trying to save his family from hoards of zombies, however while World War Z paints the main character as the only option hero, not really delving into the mindset of each character. Train to Busan follows a more troubled character, Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) who can’t save the world, but may be able to save his daughter, during the process realising what it truly means to be a father. American zombie movies seem to need one hero, without care for their psyche, you just watch thoughtlessly knowing they will comple...

South Korean cinema has been rejuvenating the zombie genre with their recent films, starting with Train to Busan (2016) and now with #Alive (2020) that recently got its premiere on Netflix. These films have gone back to basics to completely shine above the US zombie films that are being released with insane budgets, for example Train to Busan had a budget of $8.5 Million and #Alive had a budget of around $10 Million, whereas World War Z the most recent US zombie film had a budget of $190-269 Million. I would personally rate both of these South Korean films above World War Z as I will always put an emotional thoughtful plot above CGI. It sounds counterintuitive, but the South Korean movies put zombies on the back burner, the films are about the humans, about emotion, Train to Busan focuses on an estranged father trying to connect with his daughter and #Alive focuses initially on the mental wellbeing of a secluded isolated gamer. Yes these actions are happening during a zombie apocaly...